Art & Creativity Quote by Michael Ondaatje

There is a quiet provocation in Ondaatje admitting, flatly, that he doesn’t know if he’ll write again. Coming from a celebrated novelist and poet, the line refuses the comforting myth of the “real writer” as a perpetual, well-oiled machine. It’s an anti-brand statement: no grand talk of vocation, no performative discipline, just the honest void that can open after a book is finished.

The intent feels twofold. On the surface, it’s practical: the next work hasn’t arrived yet, and he won’t pretend it has. Underneath, it’s a defense of artistic integrity. Ondaatje has built a career on collage, silence, and omission; he understands that writing isn’t simply output, it’s a form of listening for material that deserves the page. By saying “Right now,” he frames uncertainty as a legitimate present tense, not a failure to plan. The line also smuggles in a reminder of mortality and fatigue without melodrama: even a major figure can reach a point where the engine doesn’t turn, and there’s dignity in not forcing it.

Context matters because Ondaatje’s work often dramatizes how stories emerge from fragments, accidents, and lost histories. In that light, the statement reads less like self-doubt than craft philosophy: you can’t schedule discovery. It’s a small act of resistance to a culture that demands constant production and continuous narrative about one’s own future.